We report the measurement of the absolute double differ-
ential cross section for the production of the triply excited
2s2p22D state
of B2+ formed in
B3+(ls2s 3S) + H2 collisions.
The states are formed
by double excitation plus capture in two independent steps. In the first
step, one k-vacancy was produced by stripping the initial
B2+(1s22s 2S)
beam to a
B3+(1s2s 3S) ion beam component in a carbon foil.
The resulting fraction of
B3+(1s2s 3S) metastable ions has been determined. In
the second step, the metastable beam collided with a hydrogen target to
form the triply excited 2s2p22D by RTE from0
B3+(ls2s 3S). The RTEA
cross section has been measured for a wide range of projectile energies
using zero degree Auger spectroscopy. Resonant behavior of the ls2s 3S
to 2s2p22D transition has been observed and compared with theory.

This work was supported by the
Chemical Sciences, Geosciences and Biosciences Division,
Office of Basic Energy Sciences,
Office of Science,
U.S. Department of Energy.